Praise for Auburn mayor's prayer

For the second straight week, Auburn Mayor Timothy Lattimore tonight started a City Council meeting by reciting the Serenity Prayer.

Lattimore then vowed to keep praying through the end of his term Dec. 31, despite drawing fire from the American Civil Liberties Union this week. The mayor found himself on friendly ground tonight.

Leaving his seat, Councilor Matthew Smith took the lectern from which city residents speak and criticized the ACLU as an "organization that wants nothing to do with the truth."

He was followed by the Rev. David Dunbar, pastor of First Baptist Church, who encouraged Lattimore to keep praying. "I'm thankful you've stuck to your guns," Dunbar said to Lattimore.

However, Barrie Gewanter, executive director of the Central New York Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, after the meeting repeated her position that Lattimore is crossing the constitutional line dividing church and state by praying out loud at a public meeting.

"Individual expression of religious beliefs are everybody's free speech rights. Where it crosses the line is when a city official seems to endorse religion in the course of their official function. He certainly gives the appearance of (doing) that," she said in a telephone interview after the meeting.

Lattimore has broken into the first verse of the Serenity Prayer at three of the last four council meetings.

Smith said politicians have every right to religious expression and said this country's political leaders dating back to George Washington have prayed at public forums.

"We have the constitutional right as elected officials to have freedom of speech. They're not taken away. People believe half truths and are left with the impression that any expression of religion in the public square is unlawful. That's not the case," Smith said.

Gewanter disagreed and said it's inappropriate for any mayor to start a public meeting with something that gives the appearance of an official endorsement of a specific religious belief or non-belief.

"The founding fathers were wise enough to know that religious expression was protected best when the government stayed out of religious matters and did not make official statements supporting one or another religious views," Gewanter said.

"Perhaps it's time for the mayor to look to the wisdom of the founding fathers on this point," she added.